Getting to the Bottom of the Mystery of APT: The Who, the What and the How to Get in Front of It: Adam Rice, Chief Information Security Officer, Alliant Techsystems, and James Ringold, Senior Enterprise Security Architect, Alliant Techsystems

Adam Rice, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Alliant Techsystems, and James Ringold, Senior Enterprise Security Architect at Alliant Techsystems, discussed advanced persistent threats (APTs) and their impact on today's organizations during their presentation at the 2014 CISO Leadership Forum in Chicago on Nov. 19. In their presentation, "Getting to the Bottom of the Mystery of APT: The Who, the What and the How to Get in Front of It," Rice pointed out that CISOs often spend the majority of their time dealing with APT-type attacks, but there are several ways to eliminate these dangers.

According to Rice, APTs are dangerous, but many IT security professionals don't fully understand the impact of these threats. However, an organization that prioritizes data security, Rice said, can teach its employees about APTs and ensure its sensitive information is protected at all times. In addition, an organization must devote the necessary resources to safeguard its data against APTs, Rice said: "Data can be whatever is important to you ... If you put your resources in you can stop the data leaving."

Also, Ringold pointed out that monitoring APTs ensures an organization can stay on top of any potential security issues. Ringold noted examining a "cyber kill chain" can help an organization better understand APTs and the technologies that can be used to eliminate these threats as well: "Each phase of the kill chain has different areas where new tools, techniques and procedures are being used by the APT. Each one of them you can identify as you’re looking at either past events or existing events that are happening right now."